Irwin Cohen, an inventive developer who transformed a derelict factory, where the first Oreo cookie was produced in 1912, into Chelsea Market, an exuberant 21st-century food bazaar that helped revitalize its New York City neighborhood, died on Dec. 18 in Manhattan. He was 90.

In creating the market, Mr. Cohen reconfigured the former National Biscuit Company plant — a complex of 17 brick buildings dating to the 1890s, filling a block between Ninth and 10th Avenues and West 15th and 16th Streets — into an industrial destination for foodies. Repurposing the plant spurred the gentrification of West Chelsea.

Mr. Cohen and his daughter purchased the factory for $14 million. In 2018, Google bought the property for $2.4 billion.